XCOM Who? - Xenonauts Officially Complete
UFO, you know?
I am glad. Against all odds, Firaxis' XCOM revival was actually a great turn-based strategy that captured the spirit of the original Gollop games. It wasn't entirely bereft of blindspots, though. The art style wasn't super menacing and didn't allow imagination to fill in the gaps, the game sort of got easier as time went on, tension dissipated over time, etc. Sometimes, you just need a straight-up remake in order to account for everything. In the case of classic X-Com, that game is Xenonauts. Alec has both written and blathered as much before, and really, is there any greater endorsement? Alec hates everything, even rainbows and my youthful naivete. Someday I'll earn his approval. Maybe if I become turn-based and prominently feature permadeath, he'll finally love me too.
Xenonauts is now more or less complete, having hit version 1.0. There will be updates in the future, but mostly to address stability issues and things of the like. The Steam version is still listed as Early Access, but that will change soon. The game's developers explained:
"We have now released Xenonauts V1.0 on the Steam Stable branch, which marks the end of formal development for Xenonauts. This is effectively the final version of the game, minus any stability patches that may be required. Official release and leaving Early Access for the game is in about two weeks, but the remaining time is mostly going to be spent on sending out review copies, the PR around the launch, porting to Mac / Linux and getting the Kickstarter rewards sorted out etc."
"There have been a lot of changes made since the previous Stable version. The game has a much smoother difficulty curve, more information for new players, new line of sight mechanics, much improved AI and all sorts of finer polish."
Sounds magnificent. More aliens with whom to share the gift of (s)laughter. Yes, that's right: S laughter. I have no idea how it differs from normal laughter.
Who's gonna grab this one? Are you in the mood for some old-school, Cold-War-era alien out-braining? Did you give Xenonauts a go back when it first started development, aka sometime around the Actual Cold War?